Swallowing hard, she moved off him and sat on the floor, rubbing the phantom sting in her face. More memories gushed free…her grandfather, her sister—
“Oh, Livy…” She wrapped her arms around her knees and rocked herself.Her poor sister.
Tears blurred her sight, anger, pain, and abject misery swamping her. “You said something last night, and I think it cracked through the void in my mind…”
“You got your memory back?”
She nodded, then shook her head. “Some…it’s all jumbled in here.” She jabbed a finger to her temple.
“Don’t force it,” he murmured. “What did I say?”
Shadow blinked her wet eyes. “Last night, I told you I wanted to be bait to catch Tolvi. You refused and said,don’t ask me that again.A-and this image of a man looming over me flashed through my mind…”
He waited.
“He…he…” She choked out, kneading her hurting temples. “I was engaged to him.”
“What?” Nik appeared as if he stopped breathing.
“It wasn’t like that.” She hastily shook her head. “I didn’t like him. I hated him!”
“What did he do, Shadow?” he asked softly, tone menacing.
So damn much.
She pushed to her feet, unable to sit still. “He was first engaged to my sister, Olivia—”
“Olivia?” Nik repeated, going oddly still.
“Yes, Olivia Montgomery.”
Chapter 23
Nik stared at Shadow,so sure his pounding heart would break through his sternum.
Olivia Montgomerywas his mate’s sister?
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
Fuck. Could this get more screwed?
Nik exhaled roughly and rose. “Red hair, dark eyes. Pale skin. About your height?”
“Yes…” Shadow blinked her red-rimmed eyes.
“I met her.”
“What? How?When?”
“Several years ago.” Nik dragged his palm over his shorn hair, trying to get over his shock as he told her about chasing a blood demon who’d been on a killing spree and had taken refuge in some fancy hotel. “She was in the path of danger and wasn’t reacting to my mental compulsion to leave. So I had to do so in person. She refused. I couldn’t leave her with the damn fucker watching, and I knew he’d kill her to make a point…”
He rubbed his whiskered jaw, and because his guilt refused to let him do anything else, he told her the rest. “She asked for help. Offered to pay me, if I did—”
“But you didn’t,” she whispered hoarsely, her expression stricken. “Because if you had, she wouldn’t be dead.”
Dammit. “Shadow, I can’t interfere in mortal lives—”
“You, who’s so powerful, you couldn’t even take a minute to find out why she wanted help?”
